Wireless Communications for Smart Grid - Opportunities and Challenges

The objective of this tutorial is to offer an overview along with some in-depth examination of wireless communication technologies relevant to smart grid development. This tutorial will begin with an introduction to the envisioned smart grid technologies, placing some emphasis on the need for a reliable and secure communication infrastructure in the grid. It will then present the characteristics and technical requirements of smart grid communications and examine the pros and cons of various wireless communications technologies for different parts of the grid, namely, the transmission system, the distribution system, neighborhood area network, and home-area network. We will study the interoperability of suitable communication protocols concerning inter-layer as well as intra-layer communications.
We shall discuss off-the-shelf versus new technologies in regards to dependability,
reliability, and security of the electric power grid to ensure timely decisions and actions.

Biography


Yih-Fang Huang
is Professor of the Department of Electrical Engineering at University
of Notre Dame where he started as an assistant professor upon receiving his Ph.D. in 1982 from Princeton University. He served as chair of the department from 1998 to 2006. His research interests are on theory and applications of statistical communications and adaptive signal processing with current focus on smart grid technologies. He has recently given a short course, “An Introduction to Smart Electric Power Grid”, at Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland, March 2013; and will give a tutorial on smart grid at the IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems, May, 2013. In Spring 1993, Dr. Huang received the Toshiba Fellowship and was Toshiba Visiting Professor at Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan. From April to July 2007, he was a visiting professor at the Munich University of Technology, Germany. In Fall, 2007, Dr. Huang was awarded the Fulbright-Nokia scholarship for lectures/research at Helsinki University of Technology in Finland.
Dr. Huang was a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society in
2000-2001, received the Golden Jubilee Medal of the society in 1999, and served as that society’s Vice President for Publications in 1997-98. At the University of Notre Dame, he received Presidential Award in 2003, the Electrical Engineering departments Outstanding Teacher Award in 1994 and in 2011, the Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, CSC Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 2011, and the Teacher of the Year Award in the College of Engineering in 2013. Dr. Huang is a Fellow of the IEEE.